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This week I am participating in an awesome new food themed blog series. Away to Garden and Martha Stewart's Dinner Tonight blogs have come together to create Thursday Food Fests, a weekly posting on the wonderful things we do with the bounty from our gardens.

This week's theme is Zukes and Cukes...Here on Gardener to Farmer, we check in on how my plants are growing, then flip over to Portland Foodie for recipes!

Back at the beginning of June, I found a couple of cornichon cukes to plant...I was so freaking happy about it! You might remember it in the "Small Cucumber, Big Attitude" post...I decided to plant them in pots and grow them on my patio with the hope that the residual heat from the concrete would help foster growth and combat our exceptionally cool summer weather. So, how are they doing? Take a look!

Yippee! Soon, there will be enough tiny cukes to pickle...Check out the Portland Foodie post on pickling cornichons...a great recipe to try...

As for my zukes...well, they are overtaking the garden...It looks like Jurrasic Park back there...take a look...

What to do with all of those zukes (aside from anonymous gifts on the steps of neighbors?), how about a gratin? Yum! Come see my take on it in today's Portland Foodie post...

While out for a Sunday drive, my partner and I stumbled upon a tiny farmers market...Locavore that I am, I hoped I would find someone from another part of the state who had actually been able to grow something in this horrid wet, cold spring we are having. Uhhhh, no...sad to say, it looks like we are all in the same boat.

Not one to be phased by adversity, I took some time to see what veggies and herb plants might be available. Although I start most of my own seeds, a girl only has so much room...at least this year, next year I am thinking of taking over the basement AND the greenhouse...

As I am meandering through selections of herbs, I see this...

What looks like a regular cucurbit of some sort, is identified by my expert eye (ok, by my reading the tag) as a Cornichon Cucumber!!! I scream, then faint dead away...when I recover, I snatch up the only one in sight and immediately start babbling to the grower about how excited I am to have found this variety and how I have never seen it for sale before. She smiles and says she had a customer beg her to grow this for her, so she finally gave in (my doppleganger?)

I rush home and place it in a sheltered spot to wait for enough warmth to plant it. I am sitting at the edge of my chair even now...we are supposed to have 4 or 5 warm days in a row this week...so I think it might be time.

A Cornichon is a tiny cucumber that packs a BIG punch...it has been pickled and is very tart... They are absolutely the best with high brow specialty foods like pate, smoked salmon, brie...really amazing!

I suspect that some people might find using this french cucumber to be a bit intimidating, what with the company it keeps and all...If you scoot over to my new blog Portland Foodie, you can find out recipes, buying sources and other tidbits in today's post.

Proven Winners Garden Guru!

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